ahhh- Feb, You Done Good!

Feb is nearly over. And Look! This was spotted earlier this week. (hint- blue skies, bare ground, evidence of sunshine)

Look! Izmail- I'm blowing you a kiss!

haha- this was spotted too! Somebody has too few warm cozy (and dry) corners to curl up in. This guy looked like a warrior!

And in the kitchen? This-->

oh look- this is the inside! Soup! That, folks is French Vegetable (Kristina, help me out here!) soup. Lots of veggies. Lots. Start with a big leek and chop it and put it all in. And potatoes, carrots, regular onion, garlic, zucchini, celery. Cook it. Until all those dudes are soft. Then, puree it. You know- pureed soups rock. They are splendid. They are creamy and tasty (and you don't have to chew, as our guest today said). There are also a host of dried herbs in here.

But- onward. Save the best for last.

Guess who came to visit? :) Yep, the Little Dude.No one (least of all Baby) is quite sure just how happy he is with this situation... but isn't he darling? All bundled up. (And tied shut with a blue satin ribbon!) And that's his very skinny mom on the left there. He'll soon be bigger than her...

out with the old

Hello, my name is Anita and I am a packrat... and a clinger to old and beloved things. There. I said it.

Feels really good to get that out in the open. It's all true, too. My lifestyle, of course, makes it harder to hang onto junk treasures than if I had a mansion with 34 closets and forty-leven shelves. But. I do manage to accumulate. And to hang on to. Two years ago, I blogged the somewhat traumatic seperation and farewell with a dear old friend. I'm happy to report that the friendship that replaced it has been a pleasing and happy one. Although my new friend's nerves aren't as good as the old one's... I'm afraid it's nearly run its course, this 2nd friendship. The same year I met with that friend- a few months earlier, in fact, I also made another acquaintance. I got these boots. -- > At the time, I'd never before in my life paid that much $$ for footwear. 11 1/2 years later, they've finally run their course... I guess the $$ was well-spent. I felt like a mother abandoning her child as I put them down beside the garbage dumpsters and hurriedly walked away, not looking back, afraid they'd be running to and fro in a pitiful effort to find the parent they thought had loved them... ooooffffff

I tell you, those boots and I- we had good days and I really really liked them. They weren't dressy in the least. But they were comfy and they took me places. But holes in various places and cracks in the soles made me realize that they'd soon be giving out on me. So, I hardened my heart and did the awful deed.

ooooffff-da

Then I just ambled in and out of local shoe shops. Lots of flash and high heels but not much in the way of freindship. Until I popped into this tiny hole-in-the-wall beside the bazaar. Polish Leather Shoes is what the sign over the door said. Inside was a nice lady.

She let me poke around. I saw these-->  and it was love at first sight! I tried them on... my left (injured) ankle was still too painful to get down inside, so I told her I'd come back. And today I did. And tried them on. And walked around. And forked over the dough. And sailed happily home.

You know what? They smell scrumptiously wonderfully softly leather-y. :)

re buses

Just to clear up 1 misunderstanding about the 'Baba on the bus' post...
A pretty common practice here on buses: Passenger skips the ticket counter and goes directly to the bus, gets on and buys his 'ticket' from the driver (only the driver usually doesn't give him a ticket, just lets him stay on the bus). The driver then pockets (all/most) of the fare (I've always been under the impression that he keeps the whole thing, but actually, how would I know?) leaving the bus station completely out of it. The passengers do this because the driver will knock off all of the station fees and just charge for the trip- so the ticket is cheaper. For several years, a lot of bus stations have had controllers working the platforms, making people show their tickets and kicking ticketless passengers off the buses. This is a fairly new practice here in this town and always causes an uproar on the bus. Everyone yelling at the controller (the mean bus station lady) and the controller yelling back... but the controller always wins. EXCEPT- some passengers just go half a block from the station and wait for the bus to come by. They get on and pay the driver and go merrily on their way...

giraffes

My Sally friend emailed me about this giraffe thing... it's cute and fun... and I just happened to have Phyllis' giraffe pic on my hard drive, so I sent it to them... scrolling throught the first few pages, though, I saw a similar pic, so I'm not holding my breath that they'll use mine. But- this looks fun...and if you have kids, get them to draw a giraffe and send a pic of it off to this guy!

Baba on the bus

Buses are varied, seldom dull and very much a part of life here. They can be miserable; they can be wonderfully comfortable and clean (ok- they seldom are but the CAN be). They can be crowded (mostly) or not. They can be rickety (often) or fairly new; they have good shocks (sometimes) or not (mostly). But, as I said, they are seldom dull. The past month, I've had more than one occasion to make short trips on one certain local bus. It makes multiple daily runs from a village into the city and back out to the village. It goes through another small village on its way, but those people seldom ride this bus because, well they have their own bus, you know? So- the deal is, everyone on this bus nearly always knows each other and they know the driver- he's one of theirs and they're his. And they laugh and yell and fight and joke and carry on. The noise level is often very high.

So, I got on one day and sat across from this innocent (oh haha) looking baba... She's got a cane. She's old. She's dependent. She's needy, helpless, take pity on me... this is what she projects...

And then, a mean bus station lady gets on and demands to see our tickets. And not just that, she claims that all pensioners must have a small token that shows they paid a nominal fee to be on the bus... not a ticket- they ride for free... but they have to pay about 10cents (US) to get on the bus... makes sense, right? Ok- I don't get it either. Neither did Baba... She reared up... literally..

And boy did she give herself away then. Helpless? Ha! Needy? (well in some respects, maybe) No way! Dependent? Oh double Ha! And that cane- I think she could have used it... for something other than walking... She had quite a lot to say. She barked that mean bus station lady right down the aisle and back up the aisle and out the door. It's her job. And she did it admirably!

Let me tell you something- She's nobody's fool. :-)

ps- remember this post? yeah. Same bus, same driver. I suspect that he remembers me. We are very polite and respectful with each other. Thanks.

just another jaunt

We've had almost-spring the past few days. Warm... sunny... dripping melting snow... and rain, too... and mud... and bare ground... it's great! This morning, I high-tailed it out to the bus stop and caught an early bus up north to visit some older ladies. I've been there several times the past month (it's a month already?! whoa) Here are some shots of what it looked like then. I didn't take any today because the battery on my sneaky cell phone was dying... but it shouldn't be too hard to pic what it all looks like now... just subtract snow and add mud... and add litter (lots, actually)... and then add a huge dose of the hope of spring and warm air and the damp smell of the earth... you'll get it! :)

heading down the path from the bus stop

somewhere up the hill from the school... loved how the snow collected on this fence. I think that's the post office back there...

back towards the bus stop... see that little stream. It was frozen then... now it isn't!

oh- here I was following Karen- she leaves me in the dust! or snow powder... or something... She's faster than me...

off to the right- a good-sized chunk of the village. It always surprises me how spread out and large it is.

ah- we've arrived at the bus stop. This is looking in the direction we hope to go... (the road just beyond that point was some of the worst when the weather was bad... as in the bus was sort of sliding from ditch to ditch and the passengers (and driver?) were just glad there weren't a lot of other vehicles out and about...)

the bus stop. That pooch? He was there today, too. He's glad, too, that the snow's gone. He likes getting his paws in the muck and mud... likes the feel of it... and he would have taken a handout if I'd had one... sorry Muttley...

If you want to catch a bus going home, though, you face this way. They come around a curve and down a long hill and around another curve... you can see them a good long ways off... which is nice... or discouraging... (like today- waited 50 min before anything showed up that would stop to take me on)

this day a fun'l procession went by... bitter cold it was and the group was small. Several old ladies were on top of the flatbed truck with the casket... all the rest were men and boys.

This little chicken fell smack just after I took this... oops... sorry about that!

But today- today it was raining when I arrived and grey when I left... but it was still springy. Hopefully springy! ahhhh

xo

the news today

the news and comics were full of interesting stuff today. Facebook got featured... these are just from the ones I read...

And King Tut was all over the news. Anybody else notice that? I hadn't thought of him for a long time... What a tragic life the poor kid had... several thousand years after he died he finds out he had malaria, a club-foot and that his parents were siblings...

I guess I'll keep my own tidy little world, thanks.

ps Twila- I'm getting used to the new photo editor. It works pretty much ok...esp for some pix! thanks!

ah the romance of the winter that won't end

we had 2 days of warm weather- even got up to 50 F/ 10C on Sat... all the ice and all the snow (except where it was piled deep and such) was gone... totally gone... coming back from taking the garbage out Sat, this is what the path looked like...

this morning, looked out the window and saw this...

 sigh... it sure is pretty... ;)

miki-way back in dec

wow- I've got a new way to do pix on Blogger... and it's just as confusing as the last way... but I'm trying... so... skype... and web cams... and sisters.. and nieces... I have a few nieces. 3 to be specific. 2 are twins. The Big Sis is the most frequent participant in skype conversations. Then there's Madi- she likes to sit on Mom's lap and look beautiful. Then there's this little monkey. She's not so inclined to say a lot when the others are around... but back in Dec we had a Mommy-Auntie-Miki conversation. It was pretty cute. Here she is telling her mom something important...

Then she moved over to the piano bench and told me a story... I can't honestly remember what it was now... but the pix got her expressions... the whole thing came to a rather abrupt end, as I recall... when someone realized that Mother Nature had a thing or two to say as well... 

I'm not sure about this Auntie character...hmmmhahaok, a story...it was funny...we laughed and laughedand laughed?? this is where realization hit...umm, Mom... ummm, I... I... I...

What? What?? WHAT?! Well run for the bathroom!! And it all screeched to an unmerciful and abrupt end...

But isn't she a DOLL?! I mean... oh my... Miki- Aunt Nita just loves you to pieces! xo

sunshine is Oh So Nice!

This was awhile ago... we had a gloriously sunny morning and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

see that water bottle hanging by the window? That's actually a birdfeeder! K made it and keeps it stocked with sunflower seeds for the wee feathered folk!I love the faint reddish tinge here and the reflection of the sun on the ice!

K's cheery flowers

And how great when stuff inside looks dark cause it's so bright outside!

Sunbeams!